[00:00:00] If you are an irrigation professional, old or new, who designs, installs, or maintains
[00:00:10] high-end residential commercial or municipal properties, and you want to use technology
[00:00:16] to improve your business to get a leg up on your competition, even if you're an old-school
[00:00:21] irrigator from the days of hydraulic systems. This show is for you.
[00:00:28] Welcome back to the Sprinkler Nerd Show.
[00:00:30] I'm your host Andy Humphrey.
[00:00:31] I'm recording this episode from my hotel room in New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans,
[00:00:39] New Orleans, New Orleans.
[00:00:41] However you say it. And I'm here this week for my annual e-commerce, I shouldn't say my annual conference.
[00:00:50] I'm here for the annual e-commerce fuel conference, which is a conference for e-commerce owners,
[00:00:58] most of which sell over a million dollars.
[00:01:01] Many sell in the eight figures and some even more than that.
[00:01:05] It's a great time to network with other similar like-minded individuals, kind of like going
[00:01:10] to a conference for irrigation professionals.
[00:01:13] This is just for e-commerce businesses.
[00:01:16] What's really cool is that you can learn things about all different industries, but the way
[00:01:21] that e-commerce works is very similar.
[00:01:27] The purpose for this episode is not to talk about e-commerce, but to share something that
[00:01:31] I learned this week after listening to one the management recruiter, I believe, for Bridgewater
[00:01:51] Associates, and Moody's, and he's just spent his entire career working in management leadership,
[00:01:59] and he gave an excellent presentation.
[00:02:02] And there was a quote that he shared, which I would like to share with you,
[00:02:05] that was not his quote.
[00:02:07] I believe it was a quote from Peter Drucker,
[00:02:10] but it really struck a chord with me.
[00:02:15] Because, well, for a couple of reasons,
[00:02:17] but I more recently have come to the,
[00:02:22] I don't know if it's a conclusion,
[00:02:23] the thought, the realization that if it's meant
[00:02:25] to be, it's up to me. And you can say the same thing for yourself. And it can be very easy to
[00:02:34] look outwards at problems versus looking inwards at problems. And I think I may have talked about
[00:02:40] this a little bit here recently. So maybe that's why I tuned into this particular quote
[00:02:46] that I'm gonna share with you.
[00:02:48] And the quote goes like this,
[00:02:50] the bottleneck is always near the top of the bottle.
[00:02:56] And when you picture a bottle, let's just say,
[00:02:59] it's a bottle of Coke or a bottle of wine.
[00:03:03] The bottleneck is always near the top of the bottle and
[00:03:08] So if you look inside if you picture an organization the team of any size
[00:03:14] there's typically a leader of the team of the group of the organization of the division and
[00:03:21] if the
[00:03:23] bottle neck is
[00:03:24] near the top of the bottle,
[00:03:27] that means who sits at the top of the bottle?
[00:03:30] That would be the leader.
[00:03:31] That would be the manager.
[00:03:33] That would be the president, the CEO, et cetera.
[00:03:35] So if the bottleneck is near the top of the bottle,
[00:03:38] that means the bottleneck is very close to the leader,
[00:03:42] to the people in charge.
[00:03:46] And how interesting is that?
[00:03:48] That if the bottleneck for the business is near the top of the bottle, that would mean
[00:03:52] that it's up to the leaders to open up the bottleneck, to clear the bottleneck.
[00:04:01] And in the presentation, Dave went on to share that 60% of first time managers, meaning individuals
[00:04:09] that move into a new organization or move up in an organization into a position of management,
[00:04:16] 60% of them fail in the first year.
[00:04:20] So if you're becoming a manager, the odds are stacked against you.
[00:04:25] So if you are an irrigation technician that is taking a new role as the service manager,
[00:04:31] just as an example, there is a 60% chance you are going to fail in the first year.
[00:04:37] And it seems that, I don't have any particular examples, but it just seems that oftentimes you hear, you read, you see that
[00:04:50] managers and people in general often point fingers. How many times have I told John that he needs to take his shoes off before he walks into the customer's home.
[00:05:05] I'm just using this as an example.
[00:05:07] I've told John 10 times and he keeps doing it.
[00:05:09] We got to fire John.
[00:05:11] And that might be a stupid example, but instead of looking inwards and thinking,
[00:05:18] huh, I wonder if I'm not explaining this to John in the right way.
[00:05:23] What other ways could I look at explaining this to John in the right way, what other ways could I look at
[00:05:27] communicating this to John so that John understands what to do?
[00:05:33] It's so easy to look at the people around us, especially on a team and on a team with
[00:05:38] multiple types of personalities, multiple backgrounds, multiple things happening at
[00:05:42] home, etc., etc. And understand why they're not following directions or why they're doing it a
[00:05:48] different way. When really maybe we have to look back at ourself that maybe we are
[00:05:57] the bottleneck. Maybe if you fire John and you hire Tim, maybe the same thing
[00:06:04] could happen. It might be a different example,
[00:06:07] but perhaps there could be a reoccurring pattern of people not being good enough, not doing the
[00:06:16] right things. And so that's kind of just what resonated with me this week. And I just like the
[00:06:23] expression that the bottleneck is always near the top of the bottle because
[00:06:28] for me, I can see this.
[00:06:29] I can picture the bottle of Coke, the old glass bottle of Coke or Pepsi, whatever it might be,
[00:06:37] or the bottle of beer.
[00:06:40] And I can picture the bottleneck being near the top.
[00:06:42] I just love the analogy because as a leader, we should be working on ourselves
[00:06:47] in order to clear those bottlenecks.
[00:06:52] And you can take that for what it is.
[00:06:55] You can put it into your own terms.
[00:06:57] You can think about it through your own lens
[00:07:00] and how that expression might affect your business and what it might look like for you as a
[00:07:09] leader to work on some of this and to coach your other leaders and managers in your business to have
[00:07:18] the same sorts of philosophies. And I think there's a couple different ways that you could interpret this. I interpret it as more of a self-reflection and you know, the, almost like the process
[00:07:31] of questioning our own methods, questioning our own decisions, our own attitudes, you
[00:07:36] know, towards change. bottleneck, am I the bottleneck in my team's performance?
[00:07:46] You know, do I resist new technologies, for example?
[00:07:52] We know there are a lot of managers,
[00:07:56] let's not just say leaders,
[00:07:58] there are a lot of managers in the service industry,
[00:08:01] in the construction industry that might be resisting new technology or
[00:08:09] new methods.
[00:08:12] How can I lead better?
[00:08:14] How can I communicate more clearly?
[00:08:17] How can I inspire my team instead of my team's just not inspired.
[00:08:25] Two different ways to look at it.
[00:08:28] This example of the bottleneck being near the top of the bottle is a great way to almost
[00:08:33] to say look in the mirror without saying look in the mirror.
[00:08:36] It's just a different perspective. I think that by embracing this self-reflection, we might unlock a path to understanding personal
[00:08:51] and professional growth more easily or being open to personal and professional growth.
[00:08:58] It's not always necessarily about casting judgment either on ourselves or others or I you know it's
[00:09:07] self-reflection so this approach might not let's see how do I say this it might
[00:09:15] not only elevate our service but also foster just a more of a culture
[00:09:21] internally in your business of continuously learning and
[00:09:25] growing with the team. And your direct reports might need to have the self,
[00:09:32] the same attitude towards self-reflection. So if, let me just, let me,
[00:09:40] let me add this thought. And if the leader can self-reflect and show that to the team,
[00:09:47] the team might be willing to also self-reflect
[00:09:52] because the leader is maybe showing
[00:09:54] that little bit of vulnerability and not finger
[00:10:01] pointing for lack of a better word at their team,
[00:10:03] but looking inwards to see how they can improve and grow their teams.
[00:10:10] Um, you know, I don't have much experience with managing large teams.
[00:10:17] I have, you know, a small staff and I personally don't like to manage,
[00:10:23] which means I probably don't, uh, instead I just kind't like to manage, which means I probably don't.
[00:10:27] Instead, I just kind of like to show
[00:10:29] where we might be going and help the team get there,
[00:10:34] but understanding management and leadership
[00:10:39] is something that I'm interested in,
[00:10:41] and so I think that's why this quote just landed with me.
[00:10:44] So take it for what it is.
[00:10:46] And maybe instead of looking at whoever on your team might be annoying to you, not following
[00:10:54] directions, not doing what you want them to do, maybe there's just a different way to
[00:11:00] look at it.
[00:11:01] Maybe think about how you are approaching that member of the team,
[00:11:05] and what other ways could you work with them that could improve their abilities.
[00:11:13] So, all right, thank you for listening. That's my thought this week coming from
[00:11:19] New Orleans, and I'm gonna head out tonight with a bunch of other E-com nerds.
[00:11:26] So we've got sprinkler nerds, all you guys listening and tonight I get to hang out with
[00:11:32] E-com nerds and
[00:11:34] maybe based on some conversations I have tonight I might share some stories with you guys in the future.
[00:11:40] So that's what I have this week. Thank you so much for listening as always. We'll catch you next week on another exciting
[00:11:46] episode of the sprinkler show